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Marriage has physical, emotional and financial benefits

(NEWSER) - If you're considering getting married—or divorced—it may be time to mull over Maclean's reasons why matrimony is healthy:

• Married people have less chance of dying from car accidents, cancer, cirrhosis of the liver, heart attacks, and homicide.
• Men who divorce or separate are six times more likely to be depressed than those who stick with it; women, 3.5 times more likely.
• Two words: combined income. Married people usually have more money when they retire, too.

Marriage isn't the only healthy choice, experts say

(NEWSER) - Americans can sympathize with people who are alone because of divorce or the death of a partner—but what about the eternally single? In a society obsessed with romance, lifelong singles are often ostracized and considered flawed, the Washington Post reports. “Do they just not like me?” asked Bella DePaulo, author of Singled Out: How Singles are Stereotyped, Stigmatized and Ignored, and Still Live Happily Ever After. “Or is it because I’m single and they’re coupled, and couples date other couples essentially.” More»

It's an assertion of independence and self-confidence: Rachel Kramer Bussel

(NEWSER) - After a broken engagement, a New York woman did something unusual on her planned wedding day— Desiree Moodie gathered some friends, headed to Central Park, and "married herself." Her cousin read out vows she had penned: "I will make my happiness a priority and forgive myself when I’m not perfect," and "I will love myself forever more, through good and bad, thick and thin." The bride set a “revolutionary” example, writes friend Rachel Kramer Bussel at the Frisky . More»

And 'family' can include unmarried couples, most believe

(NEWSER) - As marriage rates fall , more Americans believe that marriage is becoming obsolete: About 39% of Americans, to be exact. That number is up from 28% who held the same belief in 1978, according to a new study. Nearly one in three children in the US lives with a divorced, separated, or never-married parent, and the definition of "family" is rapidly changing: 6% of children live with parents who cohabitate, but decided not to marry, the AP reports. More»

(NEWSER) - As couples grow more committed to each other, their waistlines often grow as well, Time reports. During their first few years of matrimony, couples are twice as likely to become obese as their dating peers, according to a new study being published next month. If they merely move in with their boyfriends, women are 63% more likely than uncoupled peers to become obese; their partners' average risk doesn't increase, however. More»